Healing The Wounds
by Honeeym
Summary: An insight on the most important moments of Rebekah and Klaus' troubled relationship throughout the centuries builds up to the point of his death, and afterwards. Post 3x22 "The Departed" and slightly AU.


**Disclamer**: TVD is mine. In my head.

**Summary**: An insight on the most important moments of Rebekah and Klaus' troubled relationship throughout the centuries builds up to the point of his death. How will she survive it?

**Author's Note** : In case you're wondering, yes, this was inspired by a song. Yes, again. Daniel Bedingfield, "Sorry". Check it out. And review review review :D

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**Healing The Wounds**

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Rebekah never questioned if she was Klaus' favourite. They continually argued and bickered, and he gladly admitted that her temper was worse than his, but when he looked at her sometimes, she could tell that she was the most important person in the world to him.

In the light of recent and less recent events, she was beginning to question that belief.

—

Standing above their mother's improvised grave, Rebekah chose him over herself. Niklaus could never say he was on his own; she'd made it clear that she'd be there to fight for him. He was aware that she loved him more than he did himself. The fact that she stood here, holding his hand and risking her father's murderous wrath was yet another proof. Seceding from the rest of her family at the possible cost of her life was a bitter sacrifice that she readily made, for she couldn't bear the thought of eternity without Nik. There were sides to be taken, and she did not hesitate for a second.

—

When Elijah and Klaus started fighting, Rebekah didn't fear. They'd sworn to stick together as one, always and forever. She was convinced that they'd never break that promise, because at the end of the day, they'd be united in their desire to protect her, to give her a family.

But then, Elijah left.

She refused to let herself be sad or lose balance. She still had Nik. She'd always have Nik.

—

In Chicago, Rebekah allowed herself to think about the future for the first time in decades. With Nik on one side and Stefan on the other, she felt complete. She didn't care that she hadn't had a normal life, that she cried herself to sleep sometimes because she missed her mother, that her father cared so little for her that he was chasing them across the globe. Stefan was the perfect addition to her everlasting duet with Nik.

But then she had to make a choice. A choice between two loves that were both necessary to her. Her brother, her home, her past and present? Or her lover, the possibility of a brighter future? In a momentum, she realized that this wasn't a choice between those two men. It was a choice between Nik, and herself. And just this once, she thought it would be acceptable to be selfish, to give herself a break.

She couldn't have been more wrong, and she understood it only when the cold dagger broke her skin and brought her to death – or the closest she could get to it. She remembered too late that Niklaus had no tolerance for those who betrayed him. She'd been smart enough not to make that mistake before.

—

When he brought her back, she decided to believe that there was more to it than just the need of contact with their mother, that he so scornfully named "the Original Witch". When she saw that he'd brought Stefan back to her, she decided to believe that Nik wanted to recreate the magic of the 1920s and their time together. She convinced herself that he wanted her to be happy, and to be a part of that happiness.

How wrong she had been.

—

She was honest with Elena – and with herself – when she said that she'd spent her life hating and loving Nik with equal measure. Then, she learnt the truth about their mother's death. As she broke down in tears in this house that wasn't hers, she reminisced about the sacrifices she'd made for him, the things she missed because of their lifetimes on the run, the way she disregarder their brothers' open-ended incapacitation, she felt the hatred take over. In this moment, she promised herself to make him pay. For everything he had taken from her when she was willing to give, for not loving her enough to be honest, for always getting away with everything. From that moment on, she decided, she didn't have a brother anymore. Only a liar and a cheat, who had abused her year after year, and who deserved retribution.

—

It felt unnatural to switch sides and start plotting against Nik. Especially now that Mikael was involved. It meant that she really had lost everything. No more father. No more brother. No more lover.

No more nothing.

Well, she thought, she still had her damn self and from then on, she'd lead a completely different life. Free from the sense of duty she felt she had to Klaus, free to go to high school and be a cheerleader. As for Niklaus, well, he'd get nothing more than he deserved.

—

When she awaked from her "sleep" and met Elijah's eyes, Rebekah believed that the brother she thought she knew and loved, her "Nik", had returned. She dared to believe that he'd given up on power to make their family rise from its ashes. She imagined what it'd be like to be surrounded by her siblings every day, and hoped they could learn how to be as one again.

But then Elijah's voice – so foreign yet so familiar – spoke to her for the first time in decades and she understood that Klaus would never change. She felt furious that she was naïve enough to think otherwise and swore that this was the last time he'd get to her. She'd leave him behind, always and forever.

—

When she found that Elijah couldn't deal with his vampire nature anymore, that Finn and Esther were plotting to end them all, and that Kol fled, she realized that she could never leave Klaus behind. Because behind the thick layer of hatred, there was love. Because he was the only one who never left her – even if sometimes, he was keeping her in a box. Because she didn't want to be alone in this cruel world that she didn't know at all. Because she had so much love in her heart and no one to give it to.

"Aren't we a pair?" he said, standing next to the fireplace.

They were. They would always be.

—

"Since when do you have a soft spot for them?" Klaus asked accusingly when the Salvatores came into the conversation.

Rebekah barely flinched. She was in love with Stefan. She'd let herself be used by Damon. She did _not_ have a soft spot for those brothers, but there was one thing she admired about them. They fought like dogs over one stupid doppelganger – men and those Petrovas, she thought to herself – but in the end, they would die for each other, no matter what. They knew what family meant and it was something she would always envy.

"At least, they know what family means," she added. "You destroyed ours."

Klaus didn't flinch at the reproach.

"I wanted a family," he said. "They just didn't want me."

Rebekah internally sighed. Could she really contradict him? Their parents had spent a few eternities plotting his death. She had conspired against him herself, and she hadn't been the first of his siblings to do so. He was right – his family didn't want him.

It was time to leave Mystic Falls, she knew it. Klaus made it clear that he was going to start a new family, and she barely stopped herself from explaining to him that a sire bond would never rival the power of brotherly love. Instead, she challenged him, in hopes that he might pass the test, just this once, to prove that she was right not to stop believing in him.

It upset her that he was making his plans without her, now. He hadn't asked if she wanted to go or stay, and so she dropped in that she might want to remain in Mystic Falls.

She saw a weakness in his eyes that made her immune to him calling her pathetic.

—

There was a coffin and her desiccated brother. There was a lethal stake and an Ultimate Hunter. There was fire and there were screams.

"Run," Damon commanded.

Rebekah stumbled, her hand in front of her mouth to muffle the screams of agony. Her sight blurred by the tears, she looked at Damon like he was a mad man. Why run? Mikael and Esther were dead. Finn and Klaus were dead. She had no idea where Kol was. Elijah was another story entirely.

She was alone. This life – this eternity – wasn't worth living.

The blue-eyed vampire didn't give her time to think and ushered her away. She cursed her instinct as her feet started running.

—

Rebekah sat alone in the forest, her knees drawn up to her chin, her eyes blank, with no tears left to cry. Elijah had expressed the desire to immediately leave town, but she had begged to differ, needing a moment to collect herself.

She honestly believed that seeking revenge would soothe her broken heart but as she watched Elena's car dive into the water, she felt nothing. All she had done was deprive another lonely soul of a sibling. It would never bring hers back.

She heard footsteps approaching, but didn't budge. She tiredly turned her head and barely suppressed a snarl when her eyes fell on Tyler Lockwood. The Salvatore boys were probably too devastated to come after her, and Tyler, as a hybrid, was the only one who could rival her in strength. She'd gladly let him put her out of her misery. Thus, she didn't fight back when he sped towards her and knocked her head into the closest tree.

Completely numb, she let his grip tighten around her throat to the point of her bones cracking. She barely winced – the pain in her heart was far worse than anything this infant could do to her. His very presence here was rubbing salt into her bleeding wound. Why was he still alive?

"You killed her," he growled, banging her head against the tree once more.

She remained silent, looking into his hazel eyes. Despite her detachment, she'd spent enough time with Tyler to know this wasn't one of the teenage spit of rage that characterized the young hybrid. There was something familiar in these eyes, something so intimate to her that she had trouble identifying it. She frowned, and for a second, his determination flickered.

"Nik?" she breathed tentatively.

For a second, as his face remained impassive, she dared to believe. Nik was the smartest person she knew, if anyone could find a way to cheat death, it was him. For a second, just a second, she wondered if what she thought she had seen wasn't real. If her mother's so-called ultimate hunter could have failed.

"Nik, is that you?" she asked, bracing herself for a cold return to reality.

An unnatural smirk surfaced on his lips.

She gasped.

—

She silently endured his anger about Elena's death, too amazed to care that he was calling her names.

"I thought you were dead," she yelled after a while. "I saw you burning."

Klaus inhaled deeply as he usually did to contain his rage. Rebekah huffed – he was actually angry with her. She wondered what was with her brother – and men in general – and this Gilbert girl. How did Klaus not see that the wench got nothing more than what she deserved?

"I thought you were dead, alright? she yelled, her voice resonating through the woods. "I saw you burning and it was _her_ fault. You've killed people for much less."

She took it as a small victory when he didn't object. Yes, she was hot-headed, but he was far worse.

"If the situation had been reversed, what would you have done?" she said provocatively.

Their eyes met for a moment, and Klaus faltered. A smile surfaced on her lips, knowing that she still held that special place in his heart. However, the moment was gone soon enough.

"You have ruined my chances to create hybrids," he argued stubbornly.

She sighed and ran her hand through her blonde mane. His obsession with hybrids made no sense. Worse, it hurt her feelings that he put so much effort into building a new family when she was right there.

After thinking she had lost him forever, she felt like feelings weren't to be held back anymore. Never mind that he loathed discussing feelings, he owed her that much after what he had put her through today.

"You don't need hybrids, Nik," she said softly. "You have me."

Her brother remained silent for a while, but quickly regained control of himself.

"May I remind you, little sister, that you decided to stay here?" he argued. "You have a soft spot for that football player. Not to mention the Salvatores."

Rebekah smiled at his accusatory tone.

"Let me remind _you_ that you were going to leave me here, and that you have a stupid crush on Caroline Forbes," she countered.

—

"I deserve better than this," she said, finally admitting it to herself.

Over the years, she'd been too frightened to lose her only family to confront him, but she'd lost him once today and survived. She saw this as the opportunity for a fresh start.

"You lied to me about Mother's death, Niklaus. You kept me in a box for ninety years, and brought me back only because you _needed _something from me. Then you lied some more, and kept me daggered because you feared I might leave you and tonight, you yell at me for avenging your death. Aren't you ever tired?" she asked. "Aren't you ever remorseful?"

He had the decency to look ashamed. The concern of her heart filtered through her voice, and she knew it wouldn't be hard for Klaus to figure it out. He'd always read her like an open book. She would forgive everything if, only for a moment, he showed regret. If he could bring himself to confess how sorry he was, she'd gladly give him a clean slate.

Now that Mikael and Esther were dead, and the Petrova bloodline was extinguished, they had no more reason to run. They could settle down and build a life for themselves, together. In the face of everything she had missed, and everything she had lost, she struggled not to beg him to apologize so they could move on.

As he remained silent, she glanced at him timidly, still unaccustomed to his new body. She had learnt how to decipher his slightest frown over the years, and it felt awkward that she had to learn new codes. It was easier to read Tyler's face, though.

"You want me close, you want to feel my love, but you keep pushing me away," she said accusingly. "You protect yourself from me. It pains me."

"I need my space," he retorted. "I find it hard to – to breathe when you're too close."

She said nothing.

"I know I've got to change," he confessed uncomfortably, looking at his feet. "But I can never work out how."

The blonde closed her eyes for a moment, trying to get the overwhelming need to cry under control. She had been waiting for a thousand years and here it was, the admission that he wasn't completely oblivious to her suffering, to his flaws. It gave her hope. The fact that he was still here to want to change proved her point: there was nothing Niklaus could not do once he had made up his mind.

"Start with an apology," she suggested.

Klaus shrugged. The idea seemed odd to him. He moved closer to her and she smiled.

"I want to. But how can I say I'm sorry when I know I'll do it again?" he breathed.

She let herself slide down against a tree, and her eyes went blank once more. Of all the times he'd broken her heart, this had to be the worst. Why didn't he trust her? Why wasn't she enough? She allowed the tears to fall, at last.

"Do you not believe that I love you more than anything, Nik? Have I not showed you enough?"

"You're my best friend," he said with the hint of a smile.

She heard that he meant to make her feel better, but it upset her further.

"No I'm not," she objected. "Stefan used to be your best friend. I am your sister. I am not threatening to you."

"It's been kill or die for as long as I can remember, Bekah," Klaus explained. "Everywhere, all the time. That time in Chicago, you were going to choose Stefan. When you heard about Esther, you did choose to side with our brothers."

_I couldn't lose you, you broke my heart _would have been better, she thought, but even in someone else's body, he was still Niklaus; she couldn't expect him to word his emotions all of a sudden after yet another body swap. Her lack of confidence was resurfacing as she admitted to herself that she could have done a few wrongs along the way. She knew that Niklaus had no tolerance for those who disappointed him – it was his most ferocious trait. How could she expect him to change his rules for her?

"You seem to forget every time that I chose you over myself."

"I don't," he simply said, refusing to look at her. "I lash out in anger. I often hit the wrong target and I break things and people. I don't want to, but this is who I am."

He sat next to her and gently brought her head to rest on his shoulder. It was the first time since the 1920s that he had held her like this, gently, protectively. It certainly was unsettling to look at him and see Tyler Lockwood, but if she closed her eyes, she could feel his essence, everything that made him Nik.

"I don't want to hate you anymore, Nik," she said tiredly.

"I don't want to hurt you anymore, Bekah," Klaus said softly. "I'll try."

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**A/N : I'm dying to hear your thoughts. Press review and share your love, your annoyance - anything. From Paris, with love, M.**


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